Insomnia: 12 ways to better sleep

This looks like a useful resource for people who're having trouble sleeping. It includes some educational hand-waving, tips on finding out why you aren't sleeping, plus cautions on the usual outboard sleep solutions (from the environmental to the pharmaceutical).

Try warm milk or a light snack before bed (if this doesn't interfere with another treatment you are using)

Exercise daily, but not right before bedtime

Take a warm bath, but not right before bedtime

Keep a regular bedtime and rising time

Get in the habit of going to bed when you are sleepy and sleeping where you sleep best

Reserve your bed for sleeping only

Don't have any clocks visible to you

Reduce the amount of time you allow yourself to sleep until you fall asleep easily (your health care provider can help with this form of "sleep restriction therapy"

Schedule worry time during the day and put worries out of your head when it is time to sleep; you can write them down on 3x5 cards, and then let go of them

Get up if you have not fallen asleep in 15 minutes and practice a relaxing activity (e.g. handwork, reading a boring book) until you feel sleepy

Personally, I cast aside their hand-wringy warnings last night and treated myself to a cocktail of Melatonin and Valerian; slept like a lamb, I tells ya. Now on to cutting out tobacco, alcohol, caffeine, clock-watching, and worry. Yep. Need to get right on that.

I also recommend pzizz, as someone did above. The sleep module takes me down really deep really fast.

After the session is over (for me, about 35 minutes), I mysteriously seem able come to for a few seconds in order to remove my earphones, return to a very deep sleep, and then awaken less groggily in the a.m.

However, it's boring to use pzizz/sleep if I've already taken a late afternoon pzizz "power nap" - also cool, but more like self-hypnosis - good for keeping relaxed and focused when putting in a 12- or 15-hour day (which a real GTD-er wouldn't need to do, right?).

. . . . .

Another comment about melatonin - it IS depressive, and accumulatively so. My doctor advised taking a minimal amount - if at all - 3-4 hours before the targeted sleepytime time. On the plus side, there's all those lovely surreal dreams . . .

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